On Sunday, March 11, the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) held a meeting to begin looking at what an alliance of progressive parties might look like in the upcoming October 2018 municipal election. The event was very well attended — in fact, it was the largest turnout for a COPE meeting in quite some time. Over…
Category: homelessness
Put the right pressure in the right place for affordable housing
Housing in general and housing affordability in particular continue to grab attention in Vancouver. In the case of the development of Northeast False Creek, the City of Vancouver owns two blocks on Main Street near Chinatown and Hogan’s Alley that it expropriated in the ’60s for the Georgia Street viaducts. If ever there were a…
Gregor Robertson: 10 years of disappointments
A week ago, Mayor Gregor Robertson announced that he would not be seeking re-election this fall. So now is the time to reflect on what his 10 years in office have meant. I’ll tell you up front that I do not look back with any degree of fondness at Gregor Robertson’s time as mayor of…
Ordinary folks just made a difference!
Vancouver’s development permit board have turned down Beedie Holdings Ltd.’s application to develop a site at Keefer and Columbia in Chinatown with a controversial condo project. This was an historic victory for the community — one made possible because ordinary folks like you and I organised tirelessly to make it happen. Beedie had originally proposed…
My prediction: This won’t be the last we hear from Jean Swanson
The byelection results for the one seat open on Vancouver’s city council are in. As feared, the NPA candidate, Hector Bremner, won as a result of the progressive vote being split. To my disappointment, this means that my favourite city councillor, Adriane Carr, must continue without anyone on council to second her motions so…
If you can afford a mansion, you can afford more property taxes
Jean Swanson, one of the candidates in this fall’s by-election for Vancouver City Council, has recently proposed a mansion tax. Under her proposal, property taxes would be tiered in much the same way that income tax is tiered — the lower your property value, the lower your property tax rate would be. In making her…
City Hall delays; The most vulnerable pay
In my May 26 blog, I forcefully advocated a cost-effective solution for when the City of Vancouver is faced with a slum landlord providing unsafe accommodations to its tenants. The solution: that the City perform all necessary repairs, then simply charge the owner for this cost by placing a lien on the property at the…